October 17, 2010

Here it is! The cake of my daughter's dreams. It took a night of baking and icing, and pretty much a whole day of decorating. Well, the truth is that I wasted a good 3 hours fooling around with fondant. i had tinted the fondant 2 days earlier and then it started crumbling and was very dry. Then I added too much water and it was a horrible mess. Then I screwed up again on the sides folding and creasing and so it took way longer than expected (and was much more frustrating!). I still don't know how people get the base fondant so smooth with no creases? I tried rolling it out bigger, tried thicker, thinner.... oh well. The cake turned out well and I am happy with it. That's all that matters!

October 13, 2010

This is the cake I made for my daughter's 3rd birthday, for her actual birth day. Then a second one for the actual party day. Yes, yes, I know. I'm spoiling her by making 2 cakes for her. Oh well...

The cake is a white/pink marble cake, and the top layer is chocolate and the bottom is whipped cream icing. The rest is all fondant (except the tiara and the black ribbons!). I used the cricut cake for the lettering. I'm happy with how it turned out.... except!.... I need to practice on not getting fondant folds and creases on the side, and how to properly pipe icing. Otherwise, this was a good test run for my next cake for her on the actual party day.

The cake is on fire! No, not really... but it was cool to see that sparkler fly!

October 2, 2010

Ok, this is the cake i just finished today. Not bad, but I don't know how to get the fondant not to crease on the sides. Any suggestions out there?

The cake is my mom's recipe for pound cake. A 6 inch on top and 9 inch on bottom, 4 inch in height for both so I torted 2 cakes together (see... I'm learning the lingo). I used whipped cream instead of icing because I found the icing to be sooooo sweet and sugary! OMG, I'm going to become a diabetic if I keep making and eating cakes. Ok, let's just make them and give them away!

BTW, whipped cream is a b*tch to deal with. It squeezes out when you roll the fondant on. Anyways, going to try something else next time. The cricut cake works well with gumpaste, I have had good and bad moments with using fondant though...

The thing with the Cricut Cake. It's not easy to use, I mean I cut the decorations out of gum paste but the branches are out of brown fondant. Really tough, either too gooey or too brittle.

Too bad I didn't get a clear shot of it. I was too busy with entertaining kids, I got a sore throat the next day. But it was a 2-tiered, safari-theme cake. Marble cake with cream cheese icing. BTW, that was the same flavour as the 1st birthday cake.

So my obsession has been with cakes lately. Baking them, icing them, decorating them, etc. etc. Oh man! There is a lot I don't know about cakes! Every year for my birthday, or my daughters birthdays, I must insist on ordering a special custom made cake. It started with My 1st daughter's 1st birthday. That's when I got introduced to something called FAWN-DAWNT (aka Fondant). That one cake cost $69 and I thought I had lost my mind paying that much for a cake. Then her 2nd birthday came and that one cost $226. OMG, I was ready this 3rd time to spend $250 until my husband said the magic words,"Why don't you make it yourself?". That started my endless nights of googling, youtubing, reading, and watching cakes. It's really hard to get a pro-looking cake!

But the flood gates are opened. Ala Supernatural, a seal has been broken. Now you can follow me and my journey through cakes. So far it's been rewarding, but frustrating and time consuming learning the basics. I have put my cards, my papers and punches, my knitting needles, my sewing machine and serger aside for now. I am now elbow deep in fondant, gum paste, icing, and cake recipes.... damn you husband o' mine!!! I warned you about opening this forbidden door!